Poets and Monarchs as Would-be Lovers
What happens when a poet and a king
Both fall in love and desperately desire
The same young woman or young man. They bring
Their hearts to him, the color of Greek fire,
Or to the girl. We have examples of
This. Polycrates, tyrant king, adored
A lad, one Smerdies. He caused other love,
Anacreon’s as well. Both men felt gored
By Smerdies’s hair, when it was long or short.
Sir Thomas Wyatt wanted Anne Boleyn
As England’s Henry did. (Why do men court
A titless tart?) Perhaps they loved her chin.
They’re hopeless lover losers, both, those crowns
And bardsters. All are doomed to moan-shaped frowns.